


Alchemy in 'The fire before Winter'

by Eryn



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Meta, Research
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2012-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-18 21:15:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/565389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eryn/pseuds/Eryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of mostly unrelated meta I wrote after Kryptaria <a href="http://kryptaria.tumblr.com/post/35726316515/the-fire-before-winter-homework-reading-assignments">made us write essays</a>.</p>
<p>I am working on the 'Modern applications of alchemy' topic, so you'll find Alchemy related stuff here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alchemy and Chemistry - combining old science and new science to create everything so desired - a brief overview

**Author's Note:**

While Alchemy as a field of research has been present for more than 2000 years, before the Trinity Incident it had taken a backseat to what was then referred to as modern Chemistry. Aimed at understanding the fundamental principles of all matter and its conversion, chemical research was based on model systems and complex calibrations to gain their results. It was nonetheless a field with many questions. The structure of the Atom was still being questioned and while all the known elements had been isolated and characterised, their very nature was still unknown.  
Alchemists meanwhile refused the Chemists' claim about the order of things and instead clung to their own definition of elements and structures, using their inherited scriptures as the recipes on which to base their reactions.

After the Incident, when unforseen results started to emerge in Chemical laboratories and Alchemists reported feasible results, both fields combined to form what is known as Modern Alchemy, or just Alchemy.

The basic principles are close to what Chemists had been practicing for years and even the most old fashioned Alchemists have by now accepted the Periodic Table of the Elements, though additions have been made to differentiate between isotopes with uniquely different properties (see the application of 13C in kevlar). Some common compounds have also been included to form a secondary Table of the Applied Elements, that can usually be found in the gap at the top of the PTE. And while most university level Alchemists work with both tables, schools have been methodically replacing them for the Table of the Applied Elements for the last 40 years.

While most alchemic reactions still look like what can be seen on old photographs, they no longer require the strict calibration of reaction conditions. Today it is more a matter of waiting for the currents to align and the stars to take the desired conformation. Because where on Monday a reaction gave you Copper, on Tuesday you might find nothing, because Mercury has moved on its track and is no longer aligned sufficiently.  
Attempts have been made in recent years, to include magical researchers or artificial magical current generators, but so far they have been futile. It has however been proven that an Alchemist's aura may significantly alter the results of his research. Not so much quality as rather quantity can vary by more than three orders of magnitude. Because of this, spots in specific research groups are now harder to come by because their professor is known for his strong magical aura.

Research of the nature of the elements has come to a standstill as researchers struggle to catch up to all the adjustments that have come to their profession.  
In recent years a number of papers have been published on simplifications that can be made to known reactions while accounting for the component's magical properties and the aura of the apparatus.

The most interesting field, that the alchemic applications have opened, is that of material conversion. Where before only a rearrangement and reconnection of elements was possible, today the researchers face the problem of their reagents suddenly conversing into another element. In 1976 a factory in northern Italy exploded because excess heating had faciliatied the conversion of Carbon into Iron, which had then started a chain reaction that lead to the reactor exploding. It didn't only flood the surrounding neighborhood with poisonous gas but also disturbed the magical currents in a way that left magic users as far south as Rome bed bound for weeks after. The incident known as the Seveso disaster has strongly influence administration and regulation of alchemic factories all over the world.


	2. Chapter 2

The Table of the Applied Elements is build much like the old Periodic Table. There are ten groups and three periods that all share defining elements.  
There are, for example, the two creature groups, or the metal group. And in each period the elements share a certain level of danger. In general the higher the period, the more dangerous and volatile the complex.

But the TAE doesn’t only offer you the grouping of the elements, it also gives information on physical state (gas, liquid, solid and metaphysic) as well as affinity. In general, it will be easier to bring elements to reaction, that share an affinity and that, more importantly, share an affinity with the experimenter.

  
In Elementary school, a reduced Table is used. It is filled with examples, things children might have at home. It also gives each element’s power or potency. This number is used to determine the amounts used. For example if you want to mix spit (power 8) and salt (power 1) in a 1:1 ratio, you need to use 8 times as much salt as spit, because spit is 8 times as powerful as salt.

There’s also the law of conversion of power.

Once in Middle school, the Table progresses from the reduced version to the actual Table, that doesn’t list specific things and instead names defining characterisitcs. For example salpeter is replaced by nitrites, because all nitrites follow a mostly similar reactive characteristic. Similarly, soda stood as placeholder for all Carbonates. And where in the reduced table the element ‘light’ was considered to be sun light, the TAE accounts for light both solar and lunar as well as technological.

Since every compound has its own power, the numbers are omitted in the complete table.


End file.
